Katrina and the waves, and waves, and waves

all i needed to snap myself out of my menopause and life related depression was to look at the tv and read the paper....

when i thought things were bad, i could remind myself that i had clothing, my son, and water to drink. i didn't have to worry about making sure austin had water and food, or if he was going to live. i can't imagine as a parent what the agony must be to try and take care of your children in the circumstances that currently exist in new orleans and the gulfport/biloxi area. i know that parents don't think about themselves and their needs when there is a threat to their kids...the enormous fear for the welfare of your children instinctively takes over, and you do what you have to do.

the waves from katrina will penetrate the country far further than the miles of physical destruction. there will be good that comes from this...i believe that nothing happens without a reason, and that something positive will rise from the rubble and despair.

this country for a long time has needed an attitude change about our involvement with material things and the acceptance of all types of people. with few exceptions, the faces we are seeing on tv are of mostly poor, black people. these were people who couldn't afford to get out of new orleans before the hurricane. they didn't have any place to go, and no money to get there. they didn't have transportation. if they had gotten out, how would they have paid for lodging? so they stayed, and they are still sitting on roofs and god knows where else waiting for help. but in all truth, these people have been waiting for help for a lot longer than the last 5 days. they just haven't been sitting on a rooftop trying desperately to flag someone down and get our attention. one had a sign that said "help us" and truthfully, we should have tried a little harder before this disaster occurred. it isn't just a city that is decimated. it is a lifestyle, and in this case, it should be an attitude.

the lack of governmental response is staggering. from my standpoint, it just glaringly highlights the difference between the haves and the have nots. those who have got out of new orleans, and most of the reason they "had" what they had was because of economics. they had money to leave and places where they could safely go and a way to get there. the have nots, many of them, did what was asked which was to evacuate to the convention center and the superdome. they did what was asked, and they were left there, forgotten it seems. how was it that reporters were able to get in and film and be with these people, yet the national guard and army weren't? why couldn't food or water or drugs be airlifted and dropped for people if they couldn't safely ford the water? new orleans has been a time bomb for years just waiting for "the big one" to burst the levees, which they KNEW could only withstand a category 3 hurricane. this has been known for years, but nothing seems to have been done to make those levees stronger and no evacuation or emergency plan was ever actively set up it seems. the irony is that the flooding for the most part is in the poor sections of the area...the garden district with the wealthy is on higher ground, as is much of the french quarter. the wealthy and haves live in the higher areas, whereas the poor dwell literally and figuritively in the low areas, the bottom of the bowl, the first areas to be swallowed up.

where are all these people going to go? who will take them in? how will we collectively be able to give them a way to start their lives over again?

my belief is that this country needs to reinstate some sort of CCC or WPA program for those who cannot support themselves. too long have we just handed out welfare checks and food stamps to those who need the help, yet we never gave those individuals a reason NOT to need or depend on the assistance. these are people, in some cases, who are several generations down- the-line welfare recipients. the life of public assistance is all some have ever known, and the environments that they live in don't foster a way out of the circle of despair.

the two things that change a person's position in society are education and hard work. education gives us options that we don't have without it, and hard work helps develop pride in what we can indeed accomplish. we have a faction of society with few options because of their lack of education and we give them little or no incentive to learn about pride through doing work THEY ARE PROUD OF. consider the fact that our own skyline drive and blue ridge parkway were built during the depression by men who left their homes to work to provide for their families. they developed pride in 2 ways...one, by being able to earn money themselves with dignity, and secondly, by creating something beautiful and lasting that each could point his finger to and say "i helped create this."

i would suggest that while all of these displaced people are waiting for the next steps in their lives, we could go to the shelters or places that they are staying and educate them. let them get their GED's. put them to work rebuilding their towns and pay them for it. find useful things for them to do...put some to work supervising the children in a makeshift daycare while other adults work. it would be best if eventually these tasks could be done in their home environments, but if they can't, let us not let these misplaced humans sit idly waiting for the next step. our immediate help obviously starts with the basics: food, water, shelter, medicine. but it can't end when the cleanup begins. the biggest cleanup isn't for those who have lost everything. it is for US, those who have, who need to cleanup our attitude about material things, and how our self esteem and motivation are so tied to the acquisiton of it.

i believe that any person who is in a position to influence for the good has a moral obligation to use that position to help better all that is around him. that means doing more than just writing a check and letting yourself off the hook. money is needed, but someone has to roll up the sleeves and do the hard work of working directly with the people who need it most. we don't need to just give these people a fish to meet their immediate hungers. we need to give them a pole and bait and teach them to fish. we need to be fishers of men. we need to pick one thing that each of us can do well that not only helps these people, but doesn't insulate us from the reality that we want to both help, yet avoid. wecongratulate ourselves for having done our part, but sometimes it takes more than just our money...it takes our heart and caring about people who are outside of our immediate circle of family and friends.

how we as a nation respond to this crisis not just now but in the next 6 months, will either make us or break us. we can continue as we have and create more and more discord and negativity, or we can vow to serve and begin small to create a more positive, global society. the united states has all we could ever want, but we have squandered many of our opportunities and become almost arrogant in our attitudes about those with less than we have. we have been easily able to insulate ourselves from poverty and want, and gloat in the fact that we are the best nation in the world. we are. but we don't act like it all the time, and the way our government has responded to this crisis is sad, shameful, and humbling.